Not questioning the DIY gear BUT you already lose lots of money when reselling your name brand gear now imagine how you would lose with DIY gear not saying that it's not good just saying that MOST people consider DIY as crap sometimes true but not always here is a few photos of my DIY 1984 Acoustats 1+1s and let me tell you they are very far from crap.

Best bookshelf speaker you have ever heard

I wish I can say I heard dozens Of speakers over the years. I only had a pair of b&w 601s and then upgraded to dynaudio audience 40's. both are great values. I am jealous of all those that listen to pulsars, harbeth, Wilson's. i feel so inadequate.lol

After lots of listening and demos I went with my Revel Gems over the Joseph Pulsars and Wilson Duettes, but would have been happy with any of them and I anguished over the decision for months. They are the best I have heard personally, but I am sure the TAD's, Magico's and Raidho's are superior.

JBL Control 1's ... they are the 'best bookshelf speaker I ever heard' because they got me into hifi back in the mid-80s.

I actually bought a pair recently just for kicks and the memories.

Very cool mac_and_dac. I bought a pair JBL Century L100's in 1972 and had them for 30 years before I finally upgraded and gave the JBL's to my brother in-law. It was also my first big hi fi purchase, plus my hearing was maybe 5000 Hz better than than it is now! I didn't plan it this way but, as it turns out, every Thanksgiving I get to hear them again. My current speakers are the best bookshelf speakers I've ever heard: the original Gallo Stradas(as opposed to the updated Gallo Strada 2's) with the Gallo TR3 subwoofer, of course. I toy with the notion of getting Mapleshade stands for them but I can't get past the uber price(1500 USD for a pair of stands to use with speakers that individually retail for 999 USD apiece).

fwiw,just for sh*ts and giggles heres my list of best sounding bookshelves that I have heard in different budgets.there are many many more that sound just as good but these stick out to my ears. these are some of the speakers that I actually heard owned or own now.
$200 - Cambridge audio s-30
$500 - kef q300
$1000 - ascend acoustics sierra-1
$2000 - kef ls50
$3000 - reference 3a mm cappo I
$5000 - focal electra 1008 be
$10,000 - dynaudio confidence c1
above - focal utopia diablo

fwiw,just for sh*ts and giggles heres my list of best sounding bookshelves that I have heard in different budgets.there are many many more that sound just as good but these stick out to my ears. these are some of the speakers that I actually heard owned or own now.
$200 - Cambridge audio s-30
$500 - kef q300
$1000 - ascend acoustics sierra-1
$2000 - kef ls50
$3000 - reference 3a mm cappo I
$5000 - focal electra 1008 be
$10,000 - dynaudio confidence c1
above - focal utopia diablo

I've got a pair of the little Tannoys and I like them because they make music without sounding as though they are trying too hard. Maybe some small speakers might sound super detailed and what have you, but if it is all a bit artificial and the music gets lost, then it doesn't count for much. I can't say I've heard any small speakers which cost 28 thousand dollars though, and maybe they do something magic that the Tannoys don't.

No I haven't. What are the major changes between the 1007 and 1008 iterations?

I have no idea, the only one I can remember off the top of my head is a larger tweeter cone. Whatever they did, it made a difference though. I listened to both and passed up a pretty sweet deal on the 1007s to get the 1008s.

The two-way 1008 Be became the latest beneficiary of the larger Beryllium tweeter in Focal's Infinite Acoustic Loading (IAL) configuration. The pure-beryllium, inverted-dome tweeter is identical to that found in the Utopia range. Its dome is 27mm; it used to be 25mm. Infinite Acoustic Loading has bought with it a startling and useful extension downwards in bandwidth. By opening the space to the rear of the dome, allowing it virtually infinite air volume, the resonance frequency, which is always a limiting factor in tweeter design, has been pushed way down. By utilizing this driver, Focal was able to lower the crossover point to 2200Hz, so frequencies normally handled by a relatively heavy midrange/bass driver that would also be working with very low frequencies are now dealt with by this remarkable tweeter.